Category: dance

“Creating a production that cannot be performed in China proper, at least as it is currently titled, might seem a questionable strategy for a fledgling private dance company that depends on sponsorship for its existence, and that cites the promotion of modern dance in China and of Chinese culture overseas as goals.”

This weekend at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Beijing Dance Theatre will premiere a new piece that it cannot perform at home: an adaptation of Jin Ping Mei (“The Golden Lotus”), a racy late 16th-century novel that has been banned in China itself since 1687.

“Cuba has a history of well-trained dancers, many of whom start with the National Ballet and go on to other forms of dance. But unlike many other ensembles in the international dance community, in which choreographers work with companies around the world, Danza Contemporanea De Cuba was cut off from such collaborations by the political sanctions placed on its home country.”

“The surprise departure last week of Gennady Yanin, deputy director of the Bolshoi ballet company, is the latest scandal to rock the institution. Critics speak of a theatre lacking vision and even morals, threatening to derail the Bolshoi’s history as a bedrock of Russian dramatic arts.”

“That struggle began in the late 1980s, when rebellious dancers wanted to be rid of the then director Yuri Grigorovich. A product of the old Soviet ballet, Grigorovich had maintained an iron grip over the Bolshoi’s image for more than two decades” – that is, until the glasnost era.

Choreographer Peter G. Kalivas “hasn’t paid for a performance space in years. Instead, he approaches business owners and pitches a PGK Project production as a marketing tactic and opportunity to reach potential clients. He says it’s a pretty easy sell. … But the real difference between his company and most others in town is the sheer number of performances he’s involved with.”

One problem with the ballet “has remained constantly noticed – a sense that its orchestral score, a medley of Massenet arranged by Leighton Lucas, could do better justice to the story. Last weekend a new version of the score was premiered at the Finnish National Ballet in Helsinki … And MacMillan’s widow has declared that from now on this will be the standard orchestral score.”

“Renowned choreographer Twyla Tharp will create a new full-length ballet jointly commissioned by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Georgia’s Atlanta Ballet … The story ballet will be created in Atlanta and have its world premiere by the Georgia troupe in February, 2012. Tharp will come to Winnipeg to prepare RWB to perform the Canadian premiere in the fall of 2012.”

“Sophie Letendre sits in an office at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, a spreadsheet open on her laptop. In front of her, the arduous task of creating next week’s schedule for the National Ballet of Canada. It’s March, a month of 31 days and 21 performances.”

For instance, an invitation to the Melbourne troupe Lucy Guerin Inc “to perform at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the United States this year was one that they deemed critical, so much so that they embarked on the tour even without being able to secure funding to cover the costs.”